The present invention relates to improvements in annular linking means for attaching and sealing price tags, quality tags etc. onto clothing or others.
Conventional means for attaching price tags, quality tags etc. onto clothing for shopwindow display is provided by, as shown in FIG. 7, passing a thread 91 through the hole 9a of a tag 9 to form a thread loop 92, subsequently passing the loop 92 through the buttonhole 8a of an article 8, and finally fastening the tag 9 by passing it through the loop 92.
This means of fastening the tag 9 with a thread 91, however, has drawbacks that the thread 91 when got twisted often requires painstaking for unfastening work of the tag 9 from the thread 91 and also that, visually, the loosely hanging tag has no ornamental appeal.
Another proposal for means of attaching part of merging piece (attaching gun) to clothing or others includes a method, wherein, as illustrated in FIG. 8, a solidly molded plastic merging piece (tag fastener) 95 consisting of a head part 96, a filament part (line-like part) 97, and a lateral bar part 98 fixed in a T-shape at the end of the filament is driven at one touch into the cloth 8 of a clothing by using a tag fastener driver (or driving gun).
This tag fastener 95 method, however, has an intrinsic problem of requiring a driving gun having a hollow needle at its tip, when tag 95 is attached onto the clothing 8 or others. Further it has a drawback that is relatively harmless with thicker cloths, but presents a significant problem with a thin and delicate cloth made by fine filaments such as high quality clothing and ladies'underwear by causing following damages.
Firstly, as the attaching process inevitably accompanies piercing the clothing with a hollow needle, it gives a damage to the cloth 8. Secondly, pulling the tag 9 causes the lateral bar part 98 at the end of tag fastener 95 to damage the cloth 8 of the clothing. Thirdly, a gap in the mesh of the cloth 8 will develop to a damage of the cloth during display.
While the above-described problems are caused when attaching the tag, there also are problems when detaching the tag 9 from this tag fastener 95.
Namely, when the filament part 97 is cut apart to detach the tag 95, a T-shaped part including the lateral bar part 98 may be left within the article, causing a damage to its cloth. Finding out to remove this tiny part for disposal is another trouble.
Still another widely used tag attaching means is made of plastics, wherein a male and a female engagement parts are connected by a drawn filament part.
For this production, however, plastics need to be drawn to form a filament part, which requires a drawing process to be added to the production process, bringing up the problem of a production cost increase. Further problem is that while the process is only applicable for drawable plastics such as nylon and polyester which are opaque, such attractively transparent plasitcs as methacrylics and polystyrene are not available for it although they are strong enough.
Moreover, when the male and female parts are engaged, the filament part having a similar rigidity with a drawn fishing line forms a protruding curve on the surface of the tagged article. This curved filament looks ugly, and also prevents stowing an article above another. Due to the above-mentioned problems, the drawn filament attaching means is not suited for relatively thin high quality clothing such as silk goods.
Besides, because the filament part is as rigid as a fishing line, it keeps tags apart from the article cloth, without making any apparent distinctions between high quality and low quality articles. As a result there has been a problem from a display aspect that an image lacking in high quality has little appeal to consumers. From this aspect it is needed that an annular linking means that has an attractive appearance similar to quality-impression of a necklace, a nice touch, and an easy-workablity.